Comic 848 - Have Caius talk to her

Author Notes:

You take a moment to figure out the distance--the warehouse is about a 20 hour drive from the city. You tell Ms. Voclain that you'll have a place figured out as soon as you can, but until then, no one can open that crate. The canister probably has a tracking device; that will need to be taken care of, as well.

You thank her.

"Don't," she says. "I'm not doing this for your benefit. He is a monster. He needs to be stopped. I will go to any length to see that happen."

You tell her to hold on for a moment, if she can--you want her to talk to someone. You put the phone down, as taking it into Bunker A could cut the connection off. You hustle into Bunker A, and ask Caius to talk to her--given how he met your group, and what all he's been through, he might be the best shot at convincing her to be saved.

You notice that everyone's gathered around the monitor, watching the camera feed. They all look... slightly unsettled, but Caius nods. "Yeah. I'll, uh, I'll give it a shot." He heads outside to talk on the phone with Ms. Voclain.

Everyone is staring blankly at you, almost expectantly, but silently. After a moment or two, Michelle glances at Fuse and Dr. Finch.

Fuse scratches the back of his head. "She walks weird. Like, people have a certain rhythm I guess and hers is off. Her head movements, her body language, everything's just... like... slightly fucked up."

"It's her voice, too," Michelle adds. "The pitch is... I dunno, it might be the camera. We ain't sayin' this is a problem, I agree 100% we need to get her the hell outta there, but there's some serious questions we ain't got answers to. She ain't just lab meat, somethin's goin' on there."

You... actually didn't notice anything that strange about her. She was a bit monotone, like Pierce, but you figured that was the sync bleeding in.

"Yeah, Pierce don't move like that," Michelle comments. "You seriously didn't see it? We been sittin' here tryin' to figure out what it is that's weirdin' us out."

"Spinal alignment, misplaced hip joints--" Dr. Finch starts, "--she almost certainly has customizations to her skeletal structure. I guarantee that's why she's in pain... whatever Thale was trying to make her into, it wasn't a one for one imitation of human. It's something stranger. Something she shouldn't be."

Caius walks back in. He tosses you the phone. He looks... solemn. Not bothered like he was when he left, but more somber, maybe a little sad. "She had to go. Said Thale shouldn't have any reason to check what she's been up to, big man's got too much on his plate... plus, he thinks that warehouse is invincible. She'll be back sometime tomorrow night to hash this out more and ship tha stuff off."

You ask if he made any progress with her.

Caius is quiet for a second or two. "...I dunno. I'll be real honest, I dunno. I feel like I got her thinkin' about it, but she's a hard read."

"Perhaps we should let the camera recharge during the day," Dr. Finch suggests. "That way, it will have ample power when night falls."

Y’all, MM and the crew have been talking on the discord server. Thale’s trying to recreate our mom out of spite, and subjecting each clone to a torturous oversyncing just to sate his sadistic fantasies about destroying the other fragments of the first womb.

Yeah, that was the vibe I got as well from Dr. Finch's "something she shouldn't be" - her body is kinda hybrid, and Jane doesn't register the uncanny valley because she still has some unconscious memories of her mother acting like that.
... which makes it pretty personal to help her and others like her. The trap is glaringly obvious; I'd like to say the answer is to develop our talents to take Thale/Carpenter by surprise once again in a decisive fashion, but that's still so far away...

Discuss with the Finch; would rehabilitation from oversyncing with Thale be possible ?
When Jane oversyncs with someone, they tend to both change a bit; Thale's control freakiness lets him push himself over whoever he syncs with, but are they totally erased or just locked away in their mental landscape ?